Motivation!

Aren’t we all bursting with pride in the undaunted intrepidness, the unwavering dignity, and the unfailing spirit of our WOC and WOW representatives and witnesses at the cardinals’ gathering in Rome last week? We salute you inspiring women, and we shower you with praise!

As it turned out, our women had come perfectly prepared for any and all such showers thanks their sloganized bright red parasols. I cannot resist a symbol, and I thought the choice of the red parasols covering their heads amazingly clever and effective. These versions of “cardinal’s hats” inscribed with messages to educate and enlighten rather than simply signify elite status were brilliant alternatives. Even more impressive were the parasols’ symbolism as umbrellas: opening wide, sheltering many, inclusive and welcoming all. What a contrast to a tiny beany covering one man’s head.

The women’s glorious procession and stance and the brilliant nighttime illumination of their message were quickly dashed, however, by their detention for hours by the police and by the attempts to intimidate and humiliate them further by confiscation of passports, by compelling them to sign multiple documents, and implications of further actions or reprisals, and, if you want to see it as a culminating dose of dark humor, the commandeering of their parasols as evidence of their transgressions!

All these actions, the good, bad, and plainly ridiculous, led me back to us and our reactions to them and how they affect our motivation to continue in our mission.

I was first proud, then furious, and finally motivated to donate to WOC. Anger is a great catalyst for action as we know, but it comes at a cost – especially to those who have to suffer in the process of provoking it – but also to us who find how quickly our anger fires us up, leads us to actions (some of which we may later regret), but then rapidly dissipates and leads us nowhere.

Would we have been more motivated, I wondered, if our witnesses had been invited into the Vatican, allowed to speak with maybe a few of the cardinals, both groups listening and responding to each other, all voices heard rather than silenced? I think the kind of hope garnered by such an exchange would have been so much more motivating for us than the transient anger we experience because of the repressions, suppressions, and attempted humiliations. The cynic in me suspects the hierarchs are keenly aware of which kind of response would most propel us forward and take their repressive steps accordingly.

I did find an example of how we might keep incorporating more positive strategies than outrage to booster our persistence and sense of forward movement. A friend of mine recently converted to a clean energy resource for her electricity and received this report from the company:

I thought the above was such an effective way to incentivize and reward people for positive actions and persistence. So often we think we are making negligible or no difference and become discouraged. I don’t know how we could quantify our individual or the collective impact of our own mission (I think, for example, knowing the increasing numbers of women and multi-gendered priests has helped), but how about a running tabulation of victories in the pursuit of gender-inclusion in ministry and leadership posted on one constantly updated chart similar to the one above? Instead of invaluable but sporadic news blurbs as positive results happen, we could capture and chart them as well so we don’t forget.

I wish when I said “we” above, I really meant “me” since I don’t especially like proposing something for others to do. Maybe you can see by the proposal itself that I obviously don’t have expertise, but somebody might?

And with that I rest my humble case. Thank you, seven WOC witnesses for inspiring me – and us to keep thinking and praying and acting.